The Limits of a Postcard

What can’t a postcard tell us? Sometimes it can be difficult to really get to know the person who received the cards. When seeing a collection of mail someone has received and not sent, we’re in the unfortunate position of seeing what was said to a person without reading what they wrote back.

There are some exceptions, of course. Unsent postcards give us a glimpse of people's voices, like in Maline Kaase's unsent card to Elsie. Her distinct phrasing stands out, like when she says "Its still in Christmas nothing doing yet. I spose you are having a big time." And it appears that someone later used this postcard as scratch paper for their subtraction.

Other times, we can recognize patterns in how people talk to someone. For example, the repeated, desperate pleas to young Clarence Martin to reply to his postcards. Friends and family members have to practically beg him for a response

Through reading the entirety of the postcard collection, I got a sense of the personalities and lives of recipients and senders alike. A few words and a picture mailed for one cent can tell some pretty big stories.